Enlightement Thinkers And Vincent Van Gogh Essay

The Enlightenment outlook embraced freedom and progress, viewing humanity with optimism – guarded optimism, but optimism nonetheless.   The era’s thinkers believed that humanity was essential good but flawed, though with the proper guidance and environment it could be improved, if not perfected.   Condorcet saw no limits to human potential, claiming that nature â€Å"has set no limit to the perfection of human faculties† (Gay 119) and that if humanity sought the right goals, the future would yield this. Similarly, Rousseau argued for humanity’s essential decency, yet he did not believe it was unconditional; he believed that â€Å"in the right circumstances, with the right education and the right society, man might become a decent citizen† (Gay 171).   In addition, Europeans considered Benjamin Franklin proof of their ideas – a man who had sought higher goals and outlets for his immense talents and energies and practiced Enlightenment virtues like civic duty and intellectual accomplishment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Van Gogh shared the Enlightenment thinkers’ esteem for freedom and human dignity, writing in 1880 that â€Å"men are often faced with the impossibility of doing anything, imprisoned in some kind of cage. . . .   Sometimes the prison is called prejudice, misunderstanding, [or] fatal ignorance. . . .† (Suh 17)   He claimed he painted in order to ennoble laborers and the poor, whom many despised and viewed with little sympathy, hoping to â€Å"draw [people’s] attention to matters that need to be noticed† (Suh 43). For example, works like The Potato Eaters depict their subjects in difficult, even squalid conditions but do not condemn or judge them, as Van Gogh considered such people worthy of dignity.   Though Van Gogh was not overtly political (which several key Enlightenment thinkers were), he demonstrated an anti-elitist outlook resembling the Enlightenment sense of egalitarianism, and believed that humanity could fix its flaws by increasing its understanding of others and breaking free from the mental â€Å"prisons† he described. REFERENCES Gay, Peter.   The Enlightenment.   New York: W.W. Norton, 1977. Suh, H. Anna. Ed.   Vincent Van Gogh.   New York: Black Dog and Leventhal, 2006.